Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

Who would’ve ever thought that this song would have such a literal meaning for me at some point in my life? Last weekend, I had the ultimate pleasure of experiencing one of Tokyo’s quirkiest attractions: the themed restaurant. There are several of these types of restaurants scattered about the popular areas of Tokyo with themes such as “lock-up” where you are treated as an inmate as you are served your food and drinks, some kind of deep sea odyssey where you actually catch you own fish and it’s cooked for you right there, “Alcatraz E.R.” (yes, the emergency room at Alcatraz), several video game themed places, vampire, ninja, planetarium, Alice in Wonderland…you name it. Several friends and I joined a Meet-up group for Tokyo gaijins (Japanese word for foreigner) and had the opportunity to experience a private event at “Robot Restaurant”. I’m not sure exactly why it is called a restaurant since they don’t really serve much food; it’s basically a type of cabaret show…one of the cheesiest, highly entertaining shows I’ve seen. Ok, so I am a musical junkie and have seen some of the world’s greatest shows on the world’s greatest stages and this is really no comparison….but c’mon, cheesy and entertaining is hardly ever a let-down.

I’m thinking there was some kind of story that dated back to the early caveman days since there were dinosaurs and scantily clad cavewomen swinging clubs, but then Kung-fu Panda made an appearance and I was totally thrown off. There also seemed to be some kind of battle going on between robots and other unrecognizable species (basically more scantily clad women), but everyone seemed to be friends at the end so I’m not quite sure what that was all about either.

Whatever the story…or not…it was good fun. We continued the evening with our own battle: karaoke. You haven’t truly experienced Tokyo until you’ve experienced Japanese karaoke! We all ended up winners that night.

PS: I plan to update my blog more often this year…I know, I know…I’ve said that before. This time I mean it!

Robot girls with big boobs. Their eyes and lips moved…freaky!

Fun!

Oh yeah, and random pole dancers on moveable platforms. No wonder the boys have been here a few times…